Picky eating is a developmental stage for children to build their eating habits. The prevalence of picky eating varies widely, but in general it peaks between ages two and six, a period where children are gradually being exposed to an environment outside their homes (childcare, preschool centres) and are learning to seek autonomy in developing their own food choices. Caregivers generally offer new foods three to five times before concluding that their children are picky eaters. However, most current research emphasises that children may need eight to 15 offerings to learn to accept new foods. Caregivers may need to display a lot more patience before perceiving their children as picky eaters.

Evolutionary theory suggests infants and young children have an innate preference for sweet tastes and an innate instinct to reject bitter-tasting foods to avoid potentially toxic chemicals found in inedible plants. We therefore need to learn to like eating our brussels sprouts and other bitter-tasting vegetables such as broccoli and kale, which have polyphenols and phytonutrients - naturally occurring chemical compounds that can protect against cardiovascular disease and improve overall health.

Leaning to like bitter-tasting vegetables becomes even more challenging when genetics is thrown into the mix. Picky eating could be a highly heritable trait, with estimates ranging between 72 percent and 78 per cent. Particularly, children may have genetic sensitivity to bitter tastes. These children are called "supertasters". Supertasters find bitter foods such as broccoli and brussels sprouts to be much more bitter in taste than a "non-taster", someone with no genetic sensitivity to bitter taste. Sensitivity to bitter taste may be particularly challenging in children in comparison to adults as children have a higher density of taste buds and fungiform papillae (mushroom-shaped structures on your tongue that house taste buds).

Supertasters may therefore wrongly be labelled as a picky eaters. They may need tailored dietary interventions such as more reattempts before they learn to accept bitter-tasting vegetables. However, understanding the nexus between picky eating and supertasters is still at its conception stage, and has not been explored well in the current research.

So, if you have a child that is a picky eater, there might be more to their "pickiness" from the genetic and developmental perspective, rather than their just dislike of the food.